


Matters of The Heart

by kitncat



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Attack, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Idiots in Love, Love, Love Confessions, Original Akuma, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Season/Series 03, True Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-01 04:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20252077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitncat/pseuds/kitncat
Summary: When Marinette finally gets up the courage to ask Adrien out, he shoots her down for a mystery girl.  Heart-broken, Marinette retreats to an alleyway - where Hawk Moth is quick to find the saddened hero.(I know that this is a super-done thing, but I couldn't help it.  Things become cliché for a reason, right?)





	1. Chapter 1

Marinette could feel the tears rolling down her face, her shoulders shaking. She should have known - she had known in some capacity - that Adrien wasn't in love with her, but to find out that not only did he have no romantic inclination towards her - but that he was in love with another girl?

It was too much at once.

Marinette sobbed again, feeling any chance of regaining composure sliding away. Then a gentle voice, coaxing - not quite welcoming, but almost.

"Hello Shattered Heart, I am Hawk Moth. You have always been the best friend you could be, and yet he rejected you for what - some girl you've never met? I will give you the power to show Paris - to show _Adrien_ \- what love means."

Marinette hesitated for only a moment, knowing that what came in exchange would he her and Cat Noir's Miraculouses, but she finally nodded.

"We have a deal Hawk Moth." She whispered. She felt the transformation take hold, giving her a Ladybug-like suit. It reminded her a bit of Chloe as Anitbug, black with red spots, but rather than just plain spots the red formed into hearts with black cracks going every which way through them. The only thing not taken from Ladybug was the dark purse that hang around her neck, adorning only a single shattered heart.

She swallowed once, then pulled out her yo-yo and vanished from the alley. She felt the power Hawk Moth gave her pulse through her as she swung through Paris, letting her powers fly and test their limits - watching as couple after couple fell apart for no reason other than her own powers.

As Shattered Heart came to a rest on top of a skyscraper, looking down at the growing chaos of heart break, she felt more than heard Cat Noir land behind her.

"Milady?"

So he recognized her did he? Something stopped her from instantly breaking his heart. Maybe it was the knowledge she had to get his Miraculous, and it would be easier if he didn't hate her. More likely, she couldn't find it in her to hurt her friend and partner. After all, she had already been careful to avoid her school for the sake of protecting Alya, Nino, and her other friends.

She turned slowly to face him, "Cat." She greeted, almost coldly. Almost, not quite. Shattered Heart couldn't find it in her to completely disregard any care for him like she had everyone else she'd seen so far.

His ears laid back slightly, tail flicking, looking like he didn't know what to do. "Why are you doing this?" He whispered out, the sound almost strangled.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously as his eyes scanned her, clearly looking for her Akuma. "So everyone can know what love really leads to." She hissed back to him.

Cat's eyes had been staring at her purse, but they snapped up to meet her gaze now. "You think all this pain is what love leads to?" He asked softly.

A brief flash of the pain she'd felt when Adrien rejected her flitted through Shattered Heart's gaze, before a blazing fire matching that of Ladybug rose, "As far as I've seen it is. Think about how many times I've hurt you!" She spat.

He flinched, before straightening and stepping forward boldly, "Never once have you hurt me LB, I-"

"My name is Shattered Heart!" She interrupted, matching his step forward.

"Yes! Take his Miraculous! His ring!" She heard Hawk Moth cry.

As if sensing exactly what she'd been told, Cat stuck out his hand, fist unfurled and practically offering his ring. She stared at him in shock, waiting for the trick.

"No trick. I can't fight you. Just know the choice is yours Shattered Heart." For the first time she could recall, his voice filled with defeat as his shoulders slumped.

That look... It hurt her, somehow. She had just been inflicting the pain on others and yet him giving up so willingly - seeing his heart silently break while he did nothing to stop her - hurt almost as much as Adrien rejecting her.

For what felt like the first time, the angry yells and heart-broken cries of those her powers had affected reached her ears, and she looked at her partner in growing horror.

"What have I-"

She didn't finish the thought as pain rocked through her body, sending her teetering forward into Cat Noir.

"No! You will retrieve his Miraculous and then Ladybug's when she finally shows!"

How had he not realized by now that she was Ladybug?

"Tikki…" She breathed.

"What?" Cat sounded confused.

She didn't know what to say exactly. She needed her Kwami, but saying so would completely give away to Hawk Moth that she was Ladybug - that he'd Akumatized Ladybug, and that Ladybug was Marinette. It was a secret she couldn't let the supervillain know.

"Take his Miraculous!" She heard Hawk Moth yell, furious at her hesitation.

"My Akuma…" She managed to get out.

"On it Milady." She heard Cat say softly, heard the ripping of fabric before the transformation released her to drop to the ground, her costume melting away to reveal Marinette.

She could feel Cat's stunned look, but she just tapped her ear rings, hoping Tikki was nearby. "Tikki, spots on." It was more a whisper than her normal statement of it, but this time she relished the feeling of transforming into Ladybug. Ignoring Cat's staring, she pulled out her yo-yo and spotted her own Akuma, flitting nearby and waiting for the opportunity to strike her again.

She didn't plan to let it.

"Time to de-evilize!" She cried, throwing her yo-yo out and capturing the little butterfly.

She watched it fly away, a sign of healing more than she could truly imagine, and smiled ever so slightly, "Bye bye little butterfly." She turned her focus back to her duties, casting her yo-yo up in place of her lucky charm, "Miraculous Ladybug!"

She watched as Paris healed, couples coming back together again. It made her chest ache with longing for the same kind of affection, and she turned to Cat to apologize but found him still staring at her open-mouthed.

When he realized he had her attention, he snapped to focus. "I am so sorry Ladybug." He whispered.

She frowned, "What for?" She prompted. To her recollection, she was the one who became Shattered Heart and tried to destroy love.

She could practically see her partner shudder, tears welling in his eyes.

"Claws in." He breathed, just barely heard.


	2. Chapter 2

For a moment there's only ringing silence despite the noise of the city below, people still calming and coming back together after the Akuma attack.

But that's not why the silence rang in Ladybug's ears, it was Cat Noir's quiet order that had to have been given seconds ago.

_Claws in_.

Two words that seemed to have made her heart and lungs freeze in her chest as she watches her partner disappear and reveal another, very familiar, face.

The boy's eyes looked almost haunted, tears still threatening to fall as green eyes bore into her. He looked so upset, and Ladybug couldn't quite be sure why Adrien wore that expression.

It was using his name in her head that finally allowed noise back into her shocked mind, seemed to put time on play again.

_Adrien_. It was _Adrien_. Cat Noir was Adrien. Adrien was Cat Noir.

Her spunky, fun-loving partner who she knew she could always count on was her good friend who was kind and sensitive and almost always seemed serious in some way.

Cat Noir, the guy who'd been confessing his love for her almost since the day they'd become partners, was Adrien, the boy she's been chasing after not-so-secretly since the day they met pretty much.

"I'm sorry Milady." The whisper was soft and vulnerable.

If Ladybug had closed her eyes and just heard his voice, she would have sworn it was Cat Noir who said it - not Adrien. And it hurt her to hear that tone coming from either (both?) of them.

"Adrien..." Her mind struggled to catch up, to reconcile the two boys into one.

He seemed to snap to attention, his own emotions seemingly pushed down as he focused on her, "Yes?" He asked softly.

Ladybug studied him with another stunned glance, before whispering out in a low voice, "It's been you all this time?" It was meant as a statement, but came out a question.

Adrien hesitated, biting his lip as he tried to determine exactly what the question meant, before nodding, "Yeah, it has." He hesitated, glancing around before refocusing on the superhero in front of him, "Is that... okay?"

Somehow the uncertainty in his voice, matching the uncertainty Ladybug herself felt, eased the tension around them and she nodded, a small smile turning her lips upwards to her own surprise, "Yeah, it is."

He looked relieved, then shame returned to his gaze, "I'm sorry Marinette."

She blinked, then blinked again, then her brows furrowed. "Why are you sorry?" She was the one who had let herself be Akumatized.

Adrien gave her a sad smile, "If I hadn't... Said what I did, none of this would have happened." He said quietly.

She frowned, feeling the familiar determination set in, "It's not your fault Adrien. You can't help who you fall in love with."

He frowned, stepping closer to her so they were once again only half a foot apart, "Don't you realize Princess?"

Princess. She smiled at the familiar nickname. She liked it more than his Bugaboo for her Ladybug side, though Princess was his - Cat's - nickname for Marinette.

"Realize what?" She felt like she should detransform, look at him as Marinette instead of Ladybug - but the mask was also a shield against... She really didn't know at this point.

He gave her a shy smile, "I rejected Marinette because I was already in love with someone else. I was already in love with Ladybug - with whoever the girl behind the mask was."

She shouldn't have laughed, she could see how nervous he was, but she did - partially because she'd been in that situation more times than she cared to count and partially because of just how _ridiculous_ this whole thing seemed to think about now.

He looked a little hurt, "Ladybug?"

She shook her head, biting her lip to stop any further laughter from escaping, "I'm sorry, it's just... Funny, how this worked out."

"Please do enlighten me."

There it was again, something sounding so like Cat Noir that it completely blew her away. How had she never noticed before?

She smiled, "Tikki, spots off." She wanted to do this without the masks between them.

As Ladybug fell away to leave just Marinette, her Kwami zipped over to Adrien, diving into his jacket and dragging out a little black Kwami - Tikki grinning.

Ignoring the conversation the Kwamis struck up, Marinette turned back to Adrien.

"I rejected Cat Noir because I was already in love with another boy." She chuckled, "I was already in love with Adrien."

He laughed now, and she joined him - both of them grinning at each other as he stepped closer - eliminating the space between them as he loosely wrapped his arms around her waist.

"It seems to me we've always been in love with each other." He chuckled, "We just never knew."

She smiled up at him, "I think you may just be right Kitty." She murmured.

He beamed, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers, a light blush coloring his cheeks, "Can I kiss you My Lady?"

She smiled, a blush rising to her cheeks, "Yes." She replied, a little breathless.

There lips came together in a feather-light kiss, both relishing the revelation they'd found - the gift they'd been given.


End file.
